Air Conditioning the Weekender

The air conditioner and
forced air furnace location was the most difficult part of this design. Since
hot air rises, I wanted the furnace low. Since cool air falls I wanted the air
conditioner up high.

First I tried the air conditioner on top but
that ruined the sleek look of the Weekender.

Then I tried recessing the roof,
and made a path way for the water to run. This method virtually wiped out the
galley.

Next I eliminated the water runoff path and turned the area
of the roof into a box. That would work, except the hatch now has a notch in
it

So then I tweaked the body profile a little bit so the box
would be completely out of the hatch area. This design would work

But I
didn't like the way the box was exposed to the elements. Water, leaves, and
other junk could collect in the box. It was time to think about a cover or a
roof for the air conditioner. This design although getting quite complex, keeps
most of the junk out of the air conditioner area.

Exhausted thinking about the
complexity involved in this design, and the need for extensive
support ducting, venting, etc

I stepped back and tried to
find an easier mounting location for it. I saw the vertical wall on the front
and thought, make it like a window unit, only hide it inside.

Well this would
work great if you can handle the tongue weight. So I bought a 5200 btu window
air conditioner, which weighs 44 pounds. I set it on the tongue and the weight
increased by 42 pounds. My tongue weight was already up to 116 pounds, well
past my design goal of 100 pounds. So that wasn't going to work. Back to the
drawing board

I tried a couple other locations that I had been
thinking about... like this one, that got vented into the galley...

And this one which can be vented a
million different ways, none of them easy...

This time,
with some prodding from the members on the board, I looked again at mounting
the air conditioner on the floor in the back. Since I had the air conditioner
handy, I set it on the floor in the back. My tongue weight dropped from 74
pounds to 62 pounds. That can't be right. So I weighed the tongue again. It was
right! By locating the air conditioner behind the axle made the tongue so light
it would be like pulling the chassis without a body. I was convinced that this
was the right location.

And the view from the rear. At this point I also decided to
vent the air conditioner out the chamfered portion of the tail, towards the
ground.

So with the location settled, it was time to move on to the
cabinet design. We'll come back and finish the air conditioner design
later

Oh yes, one last thing. The forced air furnace will be
mounted in the cabinet also. We'll cover that in more detail on the cabinet
page